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  1. #1

    Horrible TP support

    This is not the first time I am having issues with them, my overall experience with them, is that they love pushing responsibilities around, and often give you ridiculas solutions for and getaway from the problem.

    Few days ago, I have been receiving mails from IPAlert, a program that TP used to monitor services installed on the client's server.

    I ignored it as this is a backup server, server MX20 and as a testing bed for me. Things went worst when I receive an email every hour for the past 2 days.

    I opened a support ticket to TP, asking them was is going on, is there any problem on their side since its IPAlert sending me all the messages.

    Beforehand, I confirmed that the SMTP server is running fine, by having netstat -an and even telnet localhost 25, even remotely.

    TP support replied that it might be a load issue and asked me to check if my load is high during that time, I then again stated that the server is only service as a backup.

    Things then went to, "Do you have a mail server running, since its a backup server." type of question, as if I am at fault here running a vacant server with TP monitoring scripts.

    The most amazing part of it is, TP staffs went in to the server, did a iptables --list and then claimed that the server I'm not receiving emails is because ipchains is blocking "some" of the IP addresses. Again, missing the point that the original purpose of the support ticket was IPAlert.

    The server then got rebooted, because in the escalation process, I have noted to them that they can reboot in case of a service down.

    Please note, during all these time, SMTP service is running fine, I can send mails to it, it can receive my mails just fine. The issue is ONLY with TP's IPAlert.

    So there, server was rebooted because the SMTP service was tought to be dead. Nice. I have lost 1 week of developement work.

    They then give the excuse that their IP block is not in my ipchains allow list, which I promptly showed them that it was in fact allowing traffics from their monitoring system.

    netstat -an showed a listening service, with a few clients "established"

    The tech then escalated my ticket to level 2, which basically give me the same crap it did, telling me that the server is taking 10 seconds to response, and it might be because of the firewall software that I was using.

    They even suggested to me that I removed my firewall service and try with SMTP again, which still give me the same result.

    The last ticket replied to me, from their support, telling me that day to day administration is my responsibility, and that they are just to provide me with assistance and not to administrate my server.

    So the question here is, why is TP rebooting my server when the service is up and running? Isnt' that part of my administration work?

    Whether I am blocking other mail users in Ipchains or not, thats my problem, as long as Im not blocking TP's IPAlert, no ?

    Another point of note, I also found an entry in my .bash_history
    "locate smtp"

    Great work, I must say.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Posts
    326
    hehe.

    theplanet



  3. #3
    Join Date
    Nov 2003
    Posts
    1,093
    To counter that, I love their domain registration services and when I checked on te status of a domain, I simply clicked on live support in Orbit, was put straight through to a tech who let me know the status quickly and explainhed the procedure a bit and then asked if there was anything else he could help me with today. I expect it all except the constant "Is there anything else we can help you with?" that I get at ThePlanet which many budget providers fail to do but makes them sound a lot more caring if they do it.
    ManageMyServices was sold by me in September 2009. I no longer have any affiliation with this company.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Apr 2003
    Posts
    72

    Re: Horrible TP support

    Originally posted by Starwing
    So there, server was rebooted because the SMTP service was tought to be dead. Nice. I have lost 1 week of developement work.
    Which is exactly why you have to save your progress my friend.

    Most people don't, I know this, but you should save or backup your work if it is really that important. Don't blame them if you didn't save.

    However if it was settings configuration ect... I'd be yelling at them on the phone.

  5. #5
    Not forgetting, that before closing the ticket, one of the technical staff asked me to be "more professional" when dealing with TP's staffs. Which I would like to add, that TP should be more professional when dealing with problems and not running around the problem.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Apr 2004
    Location
    New Hampshire
    Posts
    773
    I think they are confused on what they're supposed to do, they've told me three times now they don't do services that they have done and then I actually got yelled at by the sales manager. Took a BBB complaint but everything got straightened out

  7. #7
    Like I have mentioned, I told them that something is wrong with SMTP and IPAlert could not get a response within the set time frame. They came into my box, "locate smtp" showed me that ipchains is blocking a lot of IP address (none of them were their IP) and claim that SMTP is not working, and then reboot the box.

  8. #8
    I have heard good things about sagonet (www.sagonet.com )
    If you are looking to move providers try them... Everything I have heard about The Planet has been bad.
    I have even had my own bad experiences with them, and that is at the shared hosting level (being hosted on a box being hosted from the planet).
    Sad, isn't it? They used to be so good.

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